Pens, tablets and touch screens
The touch interface for phones and tablets, the Modifiers button for bending and stretching with a finger, touch gestures, pens and the pressure curve.
StykAnimate works with a mouse, but also with a pen tablet, a touch-screen laptop, a tablet or a phone. This guide shows how to pose with a finger or a pen, the gestures the canvas understands, and how to tune pen pressure for drawing.
- On a phone or tablet the touch interface turns on by itself: bigger controls, panels as sheets and a timeline you swipe. Settings → Interface → Touch interface forces it On or Off.
- No Ctrl or right-click on a touch screen? Tap the round Modifiers button on the stage for Bend, Stretch, Transform and Handles.
- Two fingers pan and zoom; tap with two fingers to undo, three to redo. In Draw, the Pen pressure curve decides how hard you have to press.
Turn on the touch interface
The touch interface is the same editor, laid out for fingers: larger buttons (at least 44 px on a phone), panels that open as sheets, and a timeline where time slides under a fixed playhead. Your project, tools and undo history are exactly the same.
- Open Settings (Ctrl+,) and stay on Interface.
- Under Touch, set Touch interface: Automatic (the default) turns it on for phones and tablets; On forces it, for example on a touch-screen laptop, which normally keeps the desktop layout; Off keeps the desktop layout everywhere.
- The window switches at once. Nothing in your project changes.
- Phone, upright: the tools lie along the bottom of the stage, and Animate, Draw, Build and Properties move to a tab bar at the bottom. Properties, VFX and Library rise as a sheet from the bottom; drag its grip to resize or close it.
- Phone, on its side: the top bar becomes a column on the right, and the panels open as a sheet beside it.
- Tablet: the desktop arrangement with larger controls; Properties opens as a tall sheet when the stage needs the room.
Bend, stretch and transform without a keyboard
With a mouse you hold Ctrl to stretch, Alt to transform, R for handles, or drag with the right button to bend. On a touch screen the round Modifiers button in the stage’s corner does the same:
- Tap the round Modifiers button at the bottom right of the stage. A column of buttons opens: Bend, Stretch, Add, Transform and Handles.
- Tap one, like Stretch. It turns blue and stays on (it is latched); the round button turns blue too and says what is on.
- Drag one of Blue’s red dots. The drag stretches the limb, exactly like a Ctrl-drag with a mouse.
- Tap Stretch again to turn it off. It also turns off when you change tool.
For a one-off, hold the button with one thumb while another finger drags. Each tool shows its own buttons; in Draw, the Brush has Line (Shift), Pick (Alt) and Size (Ctrl).
- Tap the round Modifiers button in the stage’s corner.
- Turn on Stretch and drag a hand: the arm gets longer.
- Turn on Bend and drag an elbow: the line curves.
- Turn on Transform and drag a hand: the whole figure turns and grows.
- Tap the lit button again to turn it off.
This example lists the four modifiers that change a drag on one figure. In the app, Add (Shift) is there too, for adding figures to the selection with a tap.
Gestures on the stage
| Gesture | What it does |
|---|---|
| One finger | Uses the current tool, like the left mouse button: pose, select, draw. |
| Two fingers, moving or pinching | Pans and zooms the view. A pose or stroke the first finger had started is cancelled. |
| Two-finger tap | Undo. |
| Three-finger tap | Redo. |
| Press and hold | The right-click menu of what is under your finger. |
| Double tap | A double-click: on a joint it selects the branch, on an origin the joined figures. |
| Press and hold a button or tool | Shows its name (or a tool’s variants) without pressing it. |
In Draw, a finger draws until you use a pen; after that the pen draws and a finger pans, like in drawing apps. Settings → Interface → Draw with a finger changes this: Always or Never (a finger pans). A second finger landing during a stroke takes the stroke back and starts a pinch.
The timeline with a finger
On touch, the Advanced timeline keeps the playhead in the middle and slides time under it, so you never have to hit a tiny frame:
- Swipe sideways to scrub; the frame that stops under the playhead is the current frame. Swipe up or down to scroll the layers, pinch to zoom.
- Tap a cell to select that layer and bring that time under the playhead. Double tap adds a key (or edits a key’s easing).
- The row of buttons above works on the selected layer at the playhead: Key / Remove, Shorter, Longer, Copy, Paste, Easing, Select and More.
- Select makes the playhead’s frame one end of a range; scrub to the other end. Drag the handles at either end to adjust, then Done.
In the Simple timeline, swipe the frame cards, tap one to select it and hold it for its menu.
Posing with a pen
- The pen’s tip is the left mouse button: tap to select, drag a joint to pose.
- The barrel button on the side of the pen is the right button: tap with it for the menu, drag a joint with it to bend.
- Turn the pen over: in Draw, the eraser end erases.
- Keep your other hand on the keyboard for Ctrl (stretch) or R (handles), or use the Modifiers button above.
The same list is under Settings → Shortcuts → Pen and tablet.
Pen pressure
In Draw, pressing harder with a pen can make a line thicker or darker. The pen pressure curve decides how much: across is how hard you press, up is how strong the line gets.
- In the Draw workspace, pick the Brush (B). Properties shows the brush’s settings.
- Under Dynamics, check what pressure changes: Size pressure (thickness), Opacity pressure (darkness) and Flow pressure (how fast paint builds up). Each brush has its own.
- Open Pen pressure and pick Soft, Linear or Firm, or drag the two round handles. The curve applies to every brush.
- Draw a line, pressing lightly then harder, and compare.
- Draw a line on the canvas, slow then fast.
- Pick Soft or Firm, or drag a handle, and draw again.
- Turn on Opacity pressure and draw: light strokes come out paler.
With a mouse or a finger there is no real pressure, so this example counts a slow stroke as pressing hard. With a pen, it uses your pen’s pressure.
- Soft: a light touch already gives a bold line. Good if your hand is light or your tablet feels stiff.
- Linear (the default): the line follows your pressure evenly.
- Firm: you have to press harder for a thick line. Good for fine detail.
- Drag the handles yourself: above the dashed diagonal, light pressure paints heavier; below it, you need to press harder. With the keyboard, focus a handle and use the arrow keys (Shift for bigger steps).
With a tablet in the browser
The browser editor reads the pen the same way as the desktop app, as long as the browser passes the pressure on. If your pen’s side button does something else, set it to right-click in your tablet’s own settings.
Common questions
My lines are all the same thickness.
Check that the brush has Size pressure on (under Dynamics) and that the curve isn’t flat. On Windows, some tablets need Windows Ink turned on in the tablet driver for pressure to reach apps.
Every line is too thick, even when I press lightly.
Pick Firm, or drag the curve’s handles below the diagonal.
The canvas moves when I want to draw with my finger.
You have used a pen, so a finger now pans. Set Settings → Interface → Draw with a finger → Always. With a pen, make sure you aren’t holding Space.
My touch-screen laptop shows the desktop layout.
That is normal: its main pointer is the touchpad. Set Touch interface to On if you want the touch layout.
A modifier stays on and my drags act strangely.
A latched modifier stays on until you tap it again. Look at the round Modifiers button: if it is blue, it tells you which one is on.
Keep going
Still stuck?
Ask the community, or tell us what’s missing from the docs.